Lucy Beecroft ends home hopes
By TESNI EVANS – Squash Mad Reporter in Bangor
England’s Lucy Beecroft reaped the reward of her high-quality shot-making as she continued her journey from the qualifiers to reach the semi-finals of the Karakal Bangor Women’s Open.
Tonight at the quarter finals stage we saw another two upsets and a massive comeback from the number two seed.
Qualifier Beecroft continued her good form, knocking out another seed to reach the semi-finals. She beat the last remaining Welsh girl, Ali Hemingway, in a comfy 3-0 win. She found her length perfectly before showing us again her variety of front shots proving too strong for the Welsh girl.
She will now meet Enora Villard of France, who had to come back from 2-0 down in order to book her spot in the semis. It was a high-paced match in which Cristina Gomez played some great winners, especially on her backhand in the first two games, to take a massive lead, but Villard fought back and made the game very physical by playing very aggressive squash and finished the match with some great winners herself.
In the other semi-final, top seed Lisa Aitken of Scotland will take on Grace Gear of England. Lisa won her match in convincing style, proving too strong for the French girl Chloe Mesic, winning in three games.
She will go in to the semis pretty fresh, where she will now meet English woman Grace Gear, who upset the rankings in beating the number 4 seed Rachael Chadwick. After losing to her in their previous meeting, she turned it around and won 3-1.
When the game was tied at 1-1, the third game proved crucial in which Grace took it on a tiebreak and never looked back after Chadwick gave away a few unforced errors to give Grace too big a lead in the fourth, which she claimed 11-3.
Four great matches tonight and we are looking forward to seeing what the semi-finals have in store for us tomorrow afternoon.
PSA W5 Karakal Bangor Women’s Open:
Quarter Finals:
[1] Lisa Aitken (SCO) bt [5] Chloe Mesic (FRA) 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-3) 25mins
[8] Grace Gear (ENG) bt [4] Rachael Chadwick (ENG) 3-1 (11-3, 6-11, 12-10, 11-3) 34mins
[Q] Lucy Beecroft (ENG) bt [7] Ali Hemingway (WAL) 3-0 (11-3, 11-7, 11-5) 19mins
[2] Enora Villard (FRA) bt [6] Cristina Gomez (SPA) 3-2 (7-11, 11-13, 11-8, 11-8, 11-6) 62mins
Semi-finals:
[1] Lisa Aitken (SCO) v [8] Grace Gear (ENG)
[2] Enora Villard (FRA) v [Q] Lucy Beecroft (ENG)
Pictures courtesy of Karakal Bangor Open